Newlyweds

So... I'm married. And let me tell you, my husband is a stud. :) He's perfect!

Marriage makes you learn a lot about yourself. I have now been married a little over two weeks and it's completely changed my life for the better! Although marriage is great and wonderful and happy, it can be tough at times. But there isn't anyone I would rather go through life with than my hubby, John Cozzens! He's my everything!

Before we got married, John Cozzens and I had some rough times. Deciding if you want to marry someone is a HUGE decision. And it can be a scary one. John and I both struggled with this decision. We wanted to be sure that God was involved in our decision of choosing an eternal companion. This was a time in my life that was crucial to my testimony because I learned to rely on the Lord and to really listen to the spirit. I learned to have Faith in the Lords plan for me, even when I didn't know the outcome. I had to learn to trust in what I did know, not in the unknown. 

I'm confident that my decision to marry John Cozzens was the right one. :) He makes me so happy and I love him with all my heart! And I will love him for all eternity! :)

OUR WEDDING DAY

 

 

I'm gonna be honest. . . I was SO nervous on the day of our wedding. And I was nervous all the way up until we were actually married. I remember walking into the sealing room and seeing all the faces of the people I loved. It was overwhelming to see so many people there to support me. And that loved me. Once we were married, all the nervousness went away and it felt so right!! And it was the best day ever! And I was so confident and happy in my decision to marry John Cozzens!! :)

 

 Honestly, not much else about that day mattered. I did love the reception because we got to see so many friends and family, some of which we haven't seen in awhile! It was so good to visit with people and to see that people were coming to celebrate with us on our special day! I'm thankful for everyone who came!

So happy we got to share this day with our closest friends :)

Us at our finest ;)

I love to see the Temple, I went inside today :)

We are attractive human beings

My fabulous cake my mom made :)

Just think happy thoughts ;)

Our photo booth at the reception!

A big thanks to my family for making my carnival reception perfect!!!

ooh... should we be nice?!?!

No... we shouldn't ;)

Yup. I'm lucky :)

 

 

 

HONEYMOON

 

 So we went on our honeymoon a week after we were married. :) We first did a ROAD TRIP!!!! We first drove to St. George where we stayed the night. In the morning we went to the St. George Temple where we did initiatory's. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip! This is the first time I have done a session at the temple (besides my sealing) since my endowment! After we finished, we were walking around the temple when the CUTEST little old lady temple worker came up to us and started talking to us. She was just so happy that we were there at the temple and was showing us around. She just put a smile on my face and made my day! :) I loved her!

 

Outside the St. George Temple :)

    The next day we finished our drive to the sunny state of California!!! :) :) Our next stop was the happiest place on earth.... six flags, baby! :) I was a little disappointed because a lot of the big roller coasters were closed so the lines were extra long. But it was still fun! John and I both love roller coasters so this was the place for us! This was John's first time at Six flags and I'm glad I got to be there and share that experience with him! Our favorite ride was the Green Lanter. It was by far the longest line we waited in. It was over two hours of waiting, but it was so worth it! When we got up to ride, the seats were WAY too high and I couldn't reach them so John had to retrieve a stepping stool for me so I could get into the seat! haha It was hilarious and kind of embarrassing!!                                                                                                                                                                                   

That's my hubby ;)

Six Flags lovin'

After six flags, we embarked on our cruise!! :) That was super exciting because neither of us had done a cruise before. The first day on the cruise we didn't do much. We ate food, played games and explored the ship. :) The next day, our ship stopped in Catalina Island. John had his heart set on riding a tandem bike. So... we made that dream into a reality. ;) We rented a tandem bike and rode around the town. It was scary at first. I was in the back so I had no control of where we went and I couldn't see anything that was in front of us. I basically had to put all my trust in John. And it was scary because there were people and cars everywhere. But when I didn't feel like I was going to run into things it was super fun! And John had the best time, which made all the terrifying moments worth it.

Exploring the Ship for the first time :)

The Queen Mary :)

I can ride my bike with no handle bars.

While on Catalina we also walked on the beach for a little while as well ;)

The next day our boat stopped in Mexico! This was Johns first time out of the country so it was extra exciting! :) We hadn't planned on doing any excursions due to the fact that most of them were expensive. When we got off the boat, the people of Carnival started taking tons of pictures of us. One of pictures they took of us was with real parrots sitting on our arm! It was actually a really cool pictures and we thought about buying it, but it cost $12.00! Wha???

Once we were off the boat, we had to ride a shuttle to this little restaurant. From there we really had no clue where to go and we were worried about getting lost. They were selling tickets to the excursion of La Bufadora, which is waterhole, for $15. That was the cheapest excursion so we decided to do it. So we got on another shuttle ride with a tour guide who, along the ride, would tell us about Mexico. It was an hour long ride to La Bufadora, so this excursion took up our whole day. Once we got there, our tour guide took us down past all these shops and stores to La Bufadora. It was really pretty!! The water comes up to rocks and creates almost a geyser.

La Bufadora getting ready to spout :)

On the Mexico Beach :)

        We had about an hour after looking at La Bufadora to walk around all the stores. Mexico is such a crazy place when it comes to shopping. While walking on the streets every store owner would come to us and say we needed to come into their store. They would follow us if we didn't come in. One of the most common things I heard was "please, come look. I will show you something you have never seen before." They were so pushy and were always offering us stuff. The good thing about it though was they really wanted to sell things so you could barter with them. I have started collecting bags from different countries, so I was looking to add to my collection. I found a backpack I kinda liked but it was way more money than I wanted to spend. I got the seller to lower his price by $10. :)

While walking around the shops, we saw one that had real baby lions that you could HOLD! They were raising money to help save endangered animals... I think? haha For $25 two people could hold the lion and take pictures with it. Now, this is how awesome my Hubby is. He is allergic to all animals. And I know that holding a lion isn't something he has been dying to do. But he knew that it was something that I really wanted so he suggested we do it. Because he is selfless and he was thinking of me :) I love him with all my heart! We got to hold Mufasa, a 2 month old baby lion!! He was ADORABLE! He is going to be my pet in Heaven. ;)

 

Meet Mufasa. He's adorable!

One of the coolest moments of my LIFE!!!!

Over all, Mexico was a good time. :) Mexico is so different from anywhere I've ever been. I'm glad I got to go there because I'm realizing the more I travel to different countries, the more I enjoy learning about their culture and beliefs. I enjoyed seeing how they lived, but Mexico is also a place that I don't know if I have a strong desire to go back.

The next day we had a day at sea on our cruise ship. We spend a lot of time exploring our ship. There were a lot of places on our boat we didn't even know existed until the last day! haha While on the cruise ship we went to some of the comedy shows. We also went to the game show and Karaoke night. We ordered plenty of room service, just because we could! They had THE BEST PB&J! Uh... I miss it! haha

Coming off of our cruise was SO hard. It meant we were one step closer to having to come back to reality. The day we got home from our cruise, we went to the L.A Zoo. I loved it!! The Zoo is one of my favorite things and the L.A Zoo is huge! We spend almost 4 hours there!! :)

So remember the Disney movie "The Rescuers Down Under"? Remember the blue/gray reptile in it that's mean? Well.... we saw him at the Zoo! He is a Gray's Monitor. And he was so friendly. He loved people. Whenever we would put our hands on the glass, he would come up to it and put his foot on top of our hand and lick the glass. He was so cute!! He just wanted attention. haha



The Grays Monitor bonding with John ;)

Oh hey, Flamingos! How's it going?

After the Zoo we went back to our hotel and went swimming! This was the first time our whole trip that we busted out the bathing suits! Kinda crazy since we had been on a boat and on the beach all week haha ;) Later that night we went to a Dodgers baseball game at Dodgers stadium!! :) The dodgers were playing the Colorado Rockies. In the beginning, it wasn't even a game. The Dodgers were killing it. It was the 6th inning and the score was 6-0. Then the Dodger switched pitchers and in the 7th inning the Rockies got 4 points!! Then it got pretty intense. In the last inning, the score was still 6-4, and the Rockies had 2 players on bases. The stadium was going CRAZY!! But luckily they got out and the Dodgers won! :) It was such a good game! John was so excited that he got to see a Dodgers game. They are his favorite baseball team! It was fun to watch how excited he would get. :) I love him!

Dodgers Field

Our Honeymoon was SO fun and it was hard to come back to reality. Hard to come back to work and school. Hard to come back to a messy house. To unpacking and cleaning. To writing thank you cards and paying bills. To waking up early. To cooking instead of eating at fancy restaurants. But I am Super pumped to start my life with the man of my dreams and to go through things together. :) I'm excited to learn from him and learn more about him. To learn more about myself and to become better because of him. I'm excited for this new chapter of my life and I'm excited I get to share it with the one I love most!! :)